BuildingCasa di Giulietta

[tazzywazzy, 28.09.2007] Yes, I am back and finally writing reviews, my recent holiday to Italy has inspired me - after a bit of a break, I thought, ease myself in with a nice easy review - The House of Juliet or Casa di Giulietta.

Finding Juliet's House

As most of you know it is "fair Verona where we lay our scene", tucked between two shops on Via Capello, just off of Piazza delle Erbe, heading towards Porta Leoni. To be honest, it is not hard to find - just look for the mass of tourists gathering outside the gates.

What's there?

To be honest - not much, Snarf & I weren't actually particularly bothered about visiting Juliet's house, but we had us a Verona Card (a card that costs 8 euros, entitling you to "free" entry into all Verona's museums, churches, monuments & free travel on local AMT buses for that day, a card valid for 3 days is available for 12 euros), and it was on our way into the Piazza delle Erbe from where we were staying.

Anyway, enter Juliet's courtyard (ohh er missus!) from the street and there are just crowds of people, to your right is Juliet's house & to your left is a gift shop, where all manner of Juliet tat is available - "I love Juliet" phone strap anyone?

Facing the house, it is plain and "Juliet's balcony" is to the left, underneath is a bronze statue of the lady herself. Outside the house there are some plaques giving a rough run down about the house.

Going into the house, there is yet another gift shop, heading upstairs there are a couple of paintings and of course, access to the "famous" balcony, heading upstairs again there is "Juliet's bed" and some costumes that Juliet & her lover, Romeo, may or may not have worn, up yet more stairs you can find "Juliet's Computer" (oh god it is getting terrible now), where you can write Juliet letters and learn more about sigh Romeo & Juliet (because they were REAL people, and Juliet REALLY DID live here). Carrying on further into the house (because you have already paid your entry or you are here so you might as well), you finally reach the top floor - where you are greeted with little stools in the form of the seven dwarves....Oh god - time to leave, but not without the obligatory photo on the balcony - so down the stairs runs Snarf, I pose for my photo - and we get the hell out of the god awful place, oh wait, but not without rubbing Juliet's left breast for luck.

In short

Not really worth going to, the authorities are constantly trying to get people to stop leaving messages on the walls for Juliet, but are failing miserably and probably spending a lot of money on paint & getting some poor sod to paint over all the messages at the end of each day.

I would not recommend Juliet's house to anyone, it is a massive let down, there is nothing there and is basically just to appease the tourists, it is not worth the 4 euro entry, if you are adamant about having your photo taken on the balcony, leave your other half at the bottom and save yourself 4 euros for a coffee.

Shattering the Illusion

I hate to be the shatterer of illusions, but just thought I would point out a couple of things, there are very few things of interest at Juliet's house, the Italian's basically put it in to satisfy the tourists making pilgrimages to Verona who wanted somewhere to actually visit.

The house itself is old, it is from the 13th century (but then most of Verona is pretty old), so no big whoop there, the house itself was owned by the dell Capello family, and no they did not have a daughter name Giulietta, and no they did not have a balcony - the balcony is believed to be part of a tomb, and it was added in the 1930's - making a pilgrimage to Juliet's house and finding there was no balcony can only have been a let down.

The only thing that Is old are the minimal items on display which are from the 16th and 17th century - Juliet's bed is also quite interesting as it came from the set of the 60's film, so I guess it was technically Juliet's bed.

Finally just to kill the mood completely, stick the knife in and turn it - the original story was set in Siena and not Verona.

Please note that I have given this attraction an overall rating of 1 out of 10, as you can't give 0 out of 10 - Architecture & Condition have been awarded 2 out of 10, as there is much more spectacular architecture in verona that is free to look at.